Cassandra Clark
"Burb goes here." History Background Life wasn't always mundane and routine for Andi. There was a time when waking up led to things both unexpected and exciting, but that was some years ago, back during the height of the Ascencion War. These days, things are a little slower, a little calmer, a lot more... boringer. Which is exactly how things started out; that is, quite boring. Andi was a rather adventurous kid, but shy, always going oFf on grand adventures in her head with her best friends, the majority of whom were invisible. It wasn't that she wasn't capable of making actual, real friends, it was just that the ones in her head were a lot more interesting. And nicer. Andi was a chunky monkey, and while no one seemed to care much during elementary school, once middle school rolled around, the name calling began. She was a sensitive little thing and being overweight, timid, and totally ginger was more than enough fuel to get some mean fires going. All the jabs thrown her way were taken with a nervous laugh and smile, as long as she acted like she didn't care the kids who were out for blood usually found someone else to rile up, but that didn't mean she didn't take the insults to heart. Well, if she couldn't be pretty or popular she was gonna have to be smart and funny, the latter of which she wasn't entirely successful at, but her grades and determination were enough to make the former possible, and Andi earned herself another title: nerd. But if being smart made her a nerd, then a nerd she would be. At least she was earning praise from her teachers, especially during her high school years. She traded in the typical teenage experience of hanging out with friends and going to prom for studying and staying in, and while that did little to make her any more social, it did help her land a few scholarships. College really was the end goal for Andi, things were going to turn around, she'd have friends, she'd lose weight, she'd take a whole bunch of cool classes and be worldly, oh yeah, college was gonna rock. College sucked. Everything Andi had on her to do list fell through almost instantly. College kids weren't any nicer than the ones she left behind in high school. It was hard to drop any weight when you were living in the dorms on a food plan that made it all too easy and tempting to chow down and truly embrace the Freshman Fifteen. Classes were her only saving grace, being smart was an asset for once, and Andi found herself really excelling in any class that ended in "-ology." One professor in particular was her favorite, an oddball older guy named Ogden who taught multiple science courses and always had a passionate approach to everything he did. It was attractive trait for someone like Andi, who tended to live life vicariously at best, and every time Professor Ogden threw a class up on the roster, she was sure to take it. Magic was always something that was a part of Andi's life growing up, if not directly. She was raised in a family of Acolytes, her uncle was an Etherite, and so science and magic went hand in hand. Still, she had made it all the way to eighteen without Awakening, and so it seemed she never would. Which was fine by Andi, one less thing to worry about, and really, she had a pretty good grasp on technology and science without the help of forces supernatural. Which didn't go unnoticed by Ogden; every great hero needed a plucky assistant, and he was hard pressed to find one more plucky than Andi. The Ascension War was starting to come to a head and unbeknownst to Andi, Ogden was a major player therein. She had signed up for a work study program with the professor, and one night when leaving the lab together, Ogden was attacked by his arch nemesis, a man he only referred to as FENWICK! (yes, in all caps, exclamation point included). But this was no regular assault on the streets of New York, there was no hold up at gun point, no there was a hold up by laser gun strapped to the front of a bipedal war mecha. Because these were mages, and mages were ass-end insane. Andi learned this in the most direct way possible, that is, as an innocent bystander in this game of cat and other cat, she was, naturally, taken as a hostage. A hostage who screamed bloody murder and cried nigh instantly. Magic was one thing, but this? This was insane. Completely and utterly insane. Totally... totally... fun, actually. Once she got the ides of the game, that Ogden and Fenwick weren't actually trying to kill one another, that this was just boys playing with oversized toys, Andi found that she sort of liked the bizarre nature of the situation. This wasn't to say she wasn't shaken up by the whole thing, of course, though it did help that Fenwick offered her a Shasta cola and ride home after. Surreal, the whole thing, and that night Andi went home to try and calm her nerves by watching some old movies to comfort herself. A mistake, that. She popped in a copy of The Muppets Take Manhattan, and about ten minutes into the film, the characters started talking to her. Not to each other, to her, and as she stared in amazement Statler and Waldorf instructed Kermit and company to jump out of the TV and pull her in. And they did. The last thing she remembered before her mind expanded was trying in vain to clutch at her couch as a pile of furry puppets dragged her to her Awakening. From then on, Andi was a permanent fixture at Ogden's side, playing part lab assistant, part damsel in distress, and part boy girl wonder. She had, unsurprisingly gone the same route her mentor had, falling in line with the Technocrats and the N.W.O., fighting the good fight against the Traditionalists who were dead set on disrupting the Truth. And she did, for years at that, building up a confidence in herself she never had before, and the running around it entailed helped her drop some serious weight (one couldn't outrun jaguars with machine guns strapped to their shoulders if they were carrying extra weight, after all). It was fun, it was scary, it made her feel alive, and then, one day, it all ended. Ogden died, in a way far too mundane for someone larger than life. There was no continuing on after that, not in the same way, the magic was gone, Fenwick was gone, the big robots and the laser guns and the excitement, all gone, and Andi found that her passion to battle the Traditionalists went with it. Really, the Technocrats had it wrong all along, science alone wasn't enough for progress, it was great for Gundam fights and playing superhero, but the future was in the hands of information technology, of the internet, everything the Virtual Adepts were fighting for. And so Andi switched ranks, joining the minor leagues... ...but the minor leagues won. For a time, there was a glimpse of the life she had left behind, she had won! The future was so bright she was gonna need shades! The Adepts would ban together and start a new era of Enlightenment! Or they could all sort of flounder around and do a whole lot of nothing. Andi watched everything fall back down into the mundane and boring for a second time in her life, and to say she was a little disappointed would be a massive understatement. What did a mage do when there was nothing to be done? She joined the ranks of the sleepers, getting a nine to five job and trying to act like it was enough. For the last few years Andi's worked as a quality control specialist at a big name dating website based out of New York. It's nothing exciting, but it pays the bills, and she gets to read people's profiles, which are always good for a laugh. But there's still a part of her hoping and wishing that something, anything will come along and light that spark of excitement once again. Continuing Adventures To be added. Death To be added. Personality Spirited, perky, and utterly awkward, Andi tends to speak before thinking, a trait that's landed her in many an embarrassing situation. But after thirty some-odd years of tripping over her own words, Andi's used to being pegged as a bit of a weirdo. She's passionate about the things that interest her, to the point that said interests dominate her thoughts and conversations, the latter of which can be trying to anyone else trying to get a word in edgewise. She's a true blue hopeless romantic, and tends to be almost too earnest in her approach to relationships. There's a reason she's never had a serious boyfriend or even many casual ones; an overzealous motormouth is hardly what the average Joe is looking for. But she holds out hope for someone who might find all her quirks tolerable or even, dare she dream, endearing. Her tendency to live vicariously through the lives of others lends itself well to her current job, working as web support for one of New York's biggest dating websites, because she gets to see happy endings play out for people on a daily basis. Sad? Probably. But hey, it works for her, at least for now. Andi was bullied a bit as a kid due to being overweight, and to this day doesn't take kindly to those who actively try to make life miserable for others. There's nothing that gets her fired up more than watching injustice play out in front of her, and the normally sensitive, happy-go-lucky Andi will go full mama bear on an unsuspecting jerk. Life is way too short to be a butthead, and Andi has no problem letting anyone playing the role know it. She didn't survive ten years being a mad scientist's plucky sidekick without bucking up finding her own voice, after all, and in some twisted way living through the Ascension War gave her the confidence she would have lacked otherwise. Her sense of humor could be described as eccentric yet whimsical, this is a girl who loves to laugh and, having spent a good deal of time by herself, has learned to amuse herself. She's notably goofy, both behind closed doors and in public, unapologetically so, and she has long ago given up on trying to be something she's not. So what's left is an impulsive optimist who doesn't have time to worry about reeling herself in. If being passionate and lively is wrong, Andi doesn't want to be right. Still, it's not all rainbows and unicorns with her, she's lost some wind from her sails over the last few years. Things died down on the excitement radar after her old mentor passed away, and all the more so once the war ended. Yes, she was one the winning team, but whatever continued over-the-top going-ons she expected after the fact have all but disappeared. Andi would be lying if she said she didn't miss it, but the past is the past, and so she carries on with her life the way it is now; sans giant lasers and shrink rays. Appearance To be added. Spheres * Correspondence: 3 * Mind: 2 * Life: 2 * Entropy: 2 * Forces: 1 Avatar Statler and Waldorf. Relations * Ted Clark (father) * Madeline Clark (mother) * Lucy Brown (niece) Quotes * "Quote here." * "Quote here." Category:Mage Category:Virtual Adepts Category:Cypherpunks Category:Character